Nat'l Prayer Breakfast will be 'smaller,' new group hosting

 

Nat'l Prayer Breakfast will be 'smaller,' new group hosting Curated for you byCP Editors Good afternoon! It's Friday, Jan. 27, and today's headlines include changes to this year's National Prayer Breakfast, five facts in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Pastor Andy Stanley's comments comparing the faith of gay churchgoers to most Christians. There are several changes in store for the National Prayer Breakfast this year, including to its format. The annual tradition, which dates back to 1953, is held every first Thursday in February and often features speeches by special guests and the president of the United States. A new organization known as the National Prayer Breakfast Foundation will oversee the event, with the attendees being limited to members of Congress, the Biden administration, their families and constituent guests. The event will also be held at a facility that is part of the Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C., rather than a hotel, as has been customary in past years. Mark Pryor, a former Arkansas attorney general who served in the U.S. Senate from 2003-2015, serves as president of the board of the new Foundation. In an interview with CP, he explained that the changes were made as a the result of "ongoing discussions" in "the House and the Senate" over the last decade. "There's been conversations about whether we should take the National Prayer Breakfast and set it up in a single purpose entity. Before this, it was never an entity," he said. "It legally wasn't an entity, it wasn't a corporation, it wasn't a nonprofit, it wasn't a foundation, it was—what was it? It was just an event." Although previous breakfasts have seen as many as 3,500 guests, Pryor noted that confirmed attendance for this year's National Prayer Breakfast is around 250, with "RSVPs still coming in." No international figures were invited. Pryor said that this was "not really anti-international as much as" a reflection of Congress' desire to "return the National Prayer Breakfast back to its origins." He also noted that the event will still "be a time of unity" and "nonpartisanship," adding that "this country needs some moments of unity and hopefully this will be one of those." Continue reading. P.S. Get rewarded for sharing our newsletters! Sign-up for the CP referral program—the more you share, the more you earn. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to get started today!